by ET

We almost didn’t have a workshop – due to lack of participants. Undergraduates, our target sample, did not seem interested in taking part in our workshop. In our June meeting, we brainstormed the reasons for the low sign-up rate (only 2 undergrads signed up in the end) and came up with this list:

1. the 6 workshops spread out over 3 days might appear like too much work
2. undergraduates might be busy with internships and/or part-time holiday work to want to join
3. we had not managed to reach enough undergraduates. 

So, the remedies were:

1. We emailed the student chairs we knew and asked them to send out a mass email to the undergrads. 
2. We expanded our target sample to include Masters and Ph.D students.
3. We collapsed the 6 workshops into 1, and rebranded them as a 2-day workshop, to be held on 1 and 2 August 2024. 

This meant that IRB approval had to be sought again, and we made the necessary amendments to our protocol as well as informed consent sheets and recruitment advertisements. We all agreed that any number less than 10 participants and we would postpone the workshop. To date, we have received 13 participants.